Common Italian expression
| Pronunciation | |
| Literal translation | You don’t check the mouth of a horse given as a gift |
| English translation | — |
| Meaning | Don’t find flaws in gifts |
Where does this idiom come from?
Bad teeth belong to older animals, and older animals are worth less on the market. It’d be rude to focus on them when the horse (cavallo) is given to you (donato).
A horse’s mouth (bocca) is usually not a pleasant sight, and in the past, checking on the animal’s teeth was a way to estimate its age for business purposes.
Related lessons
- guardare (to look)
- donare (to donate)
- cavallo (horse)
- bocca (mouth)
- in (preposition)
- prepositions
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